Qantas’ reputation has nosedived since September, Roy Morgan reports

Qantas’ reputation has nosedived since September, Roy Morgan reports
By James Harrison


The previously highly trusted Qantas has nosedived, falling 31 places in the latest Roy Morgan ‘Net Trust’ rankings, moving from the 9th most trusted brand in the September quarter to the 40th most trusted brand in the December quarter.

Just six months ago the national carrier, which has been plagued by perceptions of poor customer service, flight delays, cancellations, and rising prices, was the 6th most trusted brand in the country. The brand now records only marginally more trust than distrust, whereas in the past its trust far surpassed its distrust.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said that brands need to be aware of the dangers that distrust presents in the wake of major scandals.

“What we see with brands that suffer major scandals is that once distrust takes hold, it is very difficult to curtail. We saw it with AMP and the big four banks following the Royal Commission, and we are still seeing it with Harvey Norman. More than 2 years after the JobKeeper scandal they are still ranked in the top 10 most distrusted brands in the country.”

“The first step in re-building trust is to eliminate distrust, and only Roy Morgan measures distrust.”

Roy Morgan data scientists analysed nominations from more than 22,000 Australians to identify the nation’s most trusted and most distrusted brands.

Qantas’ CEO, Alan Joyce, recently defended the airline amid a series of mishaps and turnarounds suffered by the airline. He wrote to the airline’s 14 million frequent flyers in a bid to add context to a number of safety issues which has brought the flying kangaroo some unfavourable press over the past fortnight.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce

Six months ago the national carrier was under immense pressure as nearly 50 per cent of its flights were late, misplaced baggage rates had more than doubled and up to 7 percent of flights were being cancelled.

Joyce also defended the airline in a radio interview last week: “Six months ago, I wrote a letter to all of our frequent flyers apologising for the poor standards of the Qantas service at the time.

“And while there was a worldwide industry problem, everybody, including ourselves, expect Qantas’ standards to be better than the industry out there.

“We’ve worked, our people have worked, unbelievably hard in the last six months. And every week, it’s improved.

“And then, we just reported the January statistics, where we’re actually on on-time performance better than we were in January 2020 before COVID hit in on-time performance.

“Our cancellation levels were the same. Our mishandled bags were the same. And our call centre answer times were a lot better than it was before COVID. So we have seen the operation get to or better than pre-COVID levels.

“And we’re seeing that in the customer satisfaction ratings that are coming through. It’s a significant improvement thanks to the huge effort from our people.”

For the full list of the Net Trust rankings, which features the decline of brands such as Optus and MediBank and the steady array of winners who always take the cake, click here.

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